This Week in WWE: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

With not long to go until Elimination Chamber, it’s time to look at the past week in WWE: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Good:

P. Roach is the New Black

Papa Roach are back and are the new sound of Monday Night Raw. From here on out, Raw is Born For Greatness!

Monday Night Raw is Born for Greatness

Braun Strowman

Everything this man does turns to gold. The Monster among men is a bona fide main event superstar. This week on Raw, he interrupted Elias Samson by performing a concert of his own, with a orchestra double bass. As ludicrous as this sounds, Braun is able to make it work whilst at the same time being a legit feared monster in the ring. The crowd reactions for him only intensify every week. Not since the days of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin could someone be handed a comedy segment one minute and be treated as a Championship title threat the next. It’s just a shame that WWE already hotshotted the Brock Lesnar match – Braun could have been positioned to conquer the beast at Wrestlemania. Suffice to say, Braun is a star on the rise and if handled properly will be a mega star for years to come.

Elias

Elias is a superstar who is simply going from strength to strength every week. He has come so far from the days of NXT where the full sail crowd chanted “drift away” week in week out. Elias has now positioned himself in the main event picture, and will be appearing in the first ever 7 man elimination chamber match to earn himself a spot in the main event at WrestleMania. Elias’ concerts every week are getting the crowd reactions he desires – the crowd go from cheering his catch phrase one minute to boo’ing him out of the building the next. Elias has also shown he can back up all this entertainment inside the ring too (and as Raw has shown the last number of weeks, he can take a beating). I for one, want to walk with Elias.

Who wants to walk with Elias?

Seth Rollins is Back in the Main Event Scene

Seth Rollins is back where he belongs, in the thick of the WWE Universal Title hunt. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of Jason Jordan who’s ‘heel in a face group’ dynamic was working extremely well for the last few weeks, but an injury has taken him off TV indefinitely. This has lead to WWE getting behind the architect once again and placing him in the Elimination Chamber match. This also places him in the path of one Finn Bálor. The two have such great chemistry and a storied history (they faced off to become the first ever Universal Champion, a match which Finn won). Thankfully, we are about to see a lot more of Seth Freakin’ Rollins.

Seth vs FInn once again

The Bad:

SmackDown

Yet again, SmackDown was nothing but a disappointment with nothing much to show for it. Storylines that go no where, Superstars fans don’t care about numerous Heel vs Heel matches where no one knows who to root for, and superstars placed in a particular position just to fill an empty spot. SmackDown, for the third week running, feels more like a house show than one which was called “The A Show” for a stretch. WWE need a complete overhaul of the SmackDown brand for anything to become remotely interesting. They didn’t even feature either of their Main Event Superstars for WrestleMania. With the wealth of talent they have at their disposal. they should be doing better. If THIS is the road to WrestleMania, they need a tune up.

Do you guys know what’s going on? Me neither!

‘Rowdy ‘Ronda Rousey

The rowdy one was nowhere to be seen yet again, three weeks after her (awkward) debut, we have not seen nor heard from her. Kurt Angle announced this week that she will be signing her contract at Elimination Chamber, because that is what WWE needs, a celebrity contract signing segment as opposed to a match featuring some of their superstars who are on the road 300+ days a year. WWE garnered mainstream media attention and serious buzz surrounding the Rousey acquisition, but have not built on it and it hurts to say, apathy is already setting in.

So, I do MORE than point this time?

Dolph Ziggler

Honestly, does anyone really care about Dolph ZIggler anymore? Weeks ago, he gave up his US title, stormed out on the WWE Universe, declaring that “”You don’t deserve me!”, only to make a lacklustre return at the Royal Rumble, followed by a match against Sami Zayn on SmackDown that was as predictable as it was boring. Dolph went out berating the fans and now, mere weeks later, are the fans supposed to cheer him and his HBK tribute act? His booking has been nothing short of a mess and it doesn’t seem like anything is going to change any time soon in that regard. The crowd reactions, or lack thereof, speak volumes.

The Ugly

Backstage Promos

What is going on with these? Promos used to take the form of an interview where a superstar could unleash on their future opponent, but now they look like a real world audition tape that could have potentially been recorded weeks in advance (and some of them look like they were done back-to-back weeks in advance, judging by some of the fatigue setting in). Gallows and Anderson have somehow gotten calling their opponents nerds and a graphic called the ‘nerd-o-meter” over, but the scripted promos are pushing it too far. Bray Wyatt has been doing the same nonsensical ‘direct to camera’ promo his entire career and now everyone is. WWE need to realise that they look far too overly scripted, and the superstars look pained delivering them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii0DqFtjKnY

“Woken” Matt Hardy

The woken one should be the highlight of Raw week in and week out, but in the hands of WWE it is falling horribly flat. For the last few years, the biggest name in professional wrestling was Matt Hardy and his “broken” persona, so much so that WWE have been in a lengthy legal battle to obtain the rights to use the gimmick. They finally managed to get the rights when they “broke” Matt and the awakening promo received a pop bigger than WWE have heard in years, but they do not know how to script “woken” Matt, and therein lies the problem. Matt Hardy invented the “broken” persona and brought it to the heights all by himself, once you script it you take away the magic, and only using the aforementioned direct to camera promos you are not getting the best out of the character. The crowd are still completely behind he character and hopefully they will reevaluate and the whole experiment won’t have to be DELETED!

Founder of Geek Ireland and proud to be part of an awesome community. I'm a huge fan of online gaming, mainly League of Legends & World of Warcraft. My favourite content to consume en-mass is Sci-Fi like Star Trek and Star Wars. All hail Netflix!